ARTIFACTORY: How to Increase the Maximum Allowed Character Length for AQL Queries

By default, JFrog Artifactory enforces a limit on the length of Artifactory Query Language (AQL) queries to ensure database stability and prevent memory exhaustion. The default limit is set to 6000 characters.

If a user or an automation script attempts to execute an AQL query that exceeds this limit, the request will fail:

$ curl -u <USERNAME>:<PASSWORD> -X POST "http://<ARTIFACTORY_URL>/artifactory/api/search/aql" \
-H "Content-Type: text/plain" \
-d "items.find(...)"

AQL query is too long; please reduce the query length to less than 6000 chars

To change this behavior, it is required to define a specific system property in the Artifactory configuration file and restart the service.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Log in to your Artifactory server via SSH.
Navigate to the artifactory configuration directory. By default, this file is located at: #JFROG_HOME/artifactory/var/etc/artifactory/artifactory.system.properties
Open the artifactory.system.properties file using a text editor (such as vi or nano) and append the following line:
```
artifactory.aql.search.query.size.limit=<DESIRED_LIMIT>
```
- Replace <DESIRED_LIMIT> with your required character count.
- Example: To increase the limit to 8,000 characters:
  Properties
```
artifactory.aql.search.query.size.limit=8000
```
Save your changes and exit the text editor.
For the system property to take effect, you must restart the Artifactory service.

For more information and limitations of the AQL, please refer to the following article.